Blender - Shadow and Compositor Tutorial

In this Blender tutorial I show you how to add a shadow plane, the common errors of using one and how to fix them. As well as using the compositor to include ambient oclussion and similate bokeh depth of field blur to your final render.
Compositor Node Set up: flic.kr/p/2j9jAo5
HDRI from: hdrihaven.com/
#Blender #Tutorial #Shadow #Compositor #render
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[@manthankohad1837]

This is such a good tutorial

[@germancastronovo2572]

muy bueno mannn...muchas gracias. muy practico

[@indiansrk9997]

Exactly what i was searching

[@sarat122]

Thanks for the great tip on AO and multiply node! For me one scene is totaly enough and it's easyer to manage the camera position change (no need to repaste the camera into background scene). So you basicaly need a single multiply node with image routed to the top and AO to the bottom. The only issue is you must use some plate shaped mesh instead of plane for shadow catcher to hide borders in AO.

[@sheermagic]

Brilliant, thanks.

[@Science3D]

so much useful details, thanks !

[@mind4338]

Very nice tutorial, thank you!

[@prajkadam]

Thanks for sharing from India

[@melikepie1621]

Thank u!

[@georgiosrigas8094]

Great tutorial but long procedure to achieve good shadows. Blender needs to add an ambient occlusion in Cycles with some tweaks menu and automatically applied to an object and scene

[@AutEmotiveDesigns]

Thank you. I agree, they've improved the shadow catcher in 3.0 so hopefully over future updates it'll receive even more.

[@woolenwoods665]

thx for the tutorial! you are awesome!

[@AutEmotiveDesigns]

Thank you.

[@AutoConceptionTV]

Blender still hasn't resolved this. Such a pain the backside to get rid of those little white highlights where the tyres touch the ground.

[@Ingmar_Rar]

Hey! I started to study Blender (I work in 3ds max) and in general I am delighted so far. But the story with the shadow on the background is a brain explosion. Why is it so difficult? I'm at a loss. This is a highly demanded feature. In 3ds max (vray), I do it in 5 seconds, I just need to put a few checkboxes.

[@yuvanbiswakarma2390]

Amazing tutorial. Gonna use this a lot now. Another thing, how do you get your reflections to flow so smoothly throughout the car?

[@AutEmotiveDesigns]

Thank you. Regarding the reflections, it's just a case of using as few vertices as possible as it's easier to keep the edge flow smooth. Then using the shrinkwrap like my in hood vents video to add details.

[@rafapoawski9642]

Great tutorial, thanks a lot. I have trouble with the Ambient Occlusion Pass. I've followed all the steps you mentioned, but my AO doesn't have contact shadows between objects and the ground plane when Shadow Catcher is applied to it. It's just a clean flat plane. In your case, AO looks good. Are you able to help?

[@AutEmotiveDesigns]

Have you enabled AO in the layer properties tab? The only other thing I can think of is an image plugged in to the wrong slot.
Since making this video I've since found an easier way to do this though. In the compositor, If you plug the environment render in to the top slow of an 'alpha over' node and the model render in to the bottom. Then plug the alpha over image in to the top slot of a mix node set to multiply, the AO from your model in to the bottom and the alpha from your model to control the factor.
This should give you the same result but a simpler node set up. I've also just published a video going over this method, including how to control the brightness and colour of everything separately.

[@davidpringuer3553]

Your Shadow Catcher pass is not connected to anything in the compositor? I am confused. How to you use the two togther (Shadow catch + AO)?

[@FictionCautious]

Let's be honest. People use Blender because it's free. Not bad but not good either. It's difficult to choose when there are so many options.
But in the end, learn the 3d package that pays if you're into that. For goofin' around, use whatever.